Sara Wheeler on Russia and its writers of the Golden Age: Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and on language, translation, etymology and bathmats across nine time zones -- with TWBC

Welcome to the travel/literary podcast The Wandering Book Collector with host Michelle Jana Chan. This is a series of conversations with writers exploring what's informed their books and their lives around themes of movement, memory, sense of place, borders, identity, belonging and home.In this edition, I speak with the travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler to discuss her book — Mud and Stars: Travels in Russia with Pushkin and Other Geniuses of the Golden Age. Among Sara’s body of work are O My America!: Six Women and their Second Acts in a New World, and books on the polar regions: The Magnetic North on the Arctic, and Terra Incognita on Antarctica. Her book Access All Areas is selected writings across two decades.Please consider supporting your local bookshop.The Wandering Book Collector would like to thank the supporters of this podcast:Abercrombie & Kent — Creating unique, meticulously planned journeys into hard-to-reach wildernesses and cultures.TUMI — Creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials.Ultimate Library — Creating bespoke book collections to educate and inspire.If you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love you to leave a rating or a review. To learn about future editions, please subscribe or hit “follow” on your podcast app of choice. Thank you for listening! For more on the podcast, book recs, what books to pack for where’s next, and who’s up next, I’m across socials @michellejchan. I’d love to hear from you.And if you’ve missed any, do catch up. From Janine di Giovanni to Bernardine Evaristo to Afua Hirsch to Carla Power to Maaza Mengiste to Kapka Kassabova.All credit for sound effects goes to the artists and founders of Freesound.org and Zapsplat.com. All credit for music goes to the artists and founders of Soundstripe.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.